Inter-university Collaboration for Encouraging Students to Study Abroad

「留学のすすめ」
Invitation to Study Abroad and Global Jinzai 5000 Project

A group of international educators and researchers in Japan are collaborating on a joint research project in order to research the long-term impact of study abroad. This parallels a similar research project, Study Abroad for Global Engagement (SAGE), organized by Michael Paige and Gerald Fry of the University of Minnesota. SAGE, published in 2009, was a retrospective tracer research project on some 6,000 individuals who participated in study abroad programs when they were university students.

A Japanese research group is now working on a similar study, collecting data on 5,000 study abroad participants. This project is called Global Jinzai 5000 (GJ5000).

As an outgrowth of the GJ5000 project, a group of universities (Toyo, Meiji, Hitotsubashi and several others) are working to set up an online community for promoting study abroad among young students. In this project, international educators offer a specific course called Ryugaku no Susume (Invitation to Study Abroad). In this project-based course work, students are required to interview mid-career professionals who participated in study abroad programs when they were young. Each student writes an article based on the interview and shares the article online.

Through this project, students work on intergenerational dialogue and learn from mid-career professionals. By engaging with this online community, it is also possible for students to find appropriate mentors for their own study abroad experiences.